Bronze Age Activities

TROY
Bronze Age Activities

NOTE the chili peppers!!! One means a pretty easy Activity, two means a harder one, and three means a challenging Activity. It is up to you.

1. Read The Trojan War, Introduction, and Chapters 1 and 2: "Bronze Age Mycenae and Troy: Archaeological Evidence" and "Oral Poetry and the Troy Cycle."

2. Explore the links on The Bronze Age page.

3. Read through all the Activity questions on this page before selecting Activities to work with. This Area is especially suited to students taking this course as Humanities 241, although English 255 students are also welcome to select Activities here. Some of the Activities are fairly easy to do, while others are more demanding.

4. Select Activities that interest you and are appropriate to the time you have to spend on them. You will not get a higher grade because you select a more difficult Activity. Some Activities that are especially complex will offer double credit; if so, that will be stated in the Activity question. If you select the double credit option, you must write "double credit" on your Activity AND you must develop your Activity in more depth, in order to qualify for the double credit.

NOTE : Follow the detailed directions in Blackboard to select one or two of these Activities for this Area and post the Activity to the Blackboard Bronze Age Forum.

Ancient Odeon of Troy Amphitheater

1. Read the material in Troy VII and the Historicity of the Trojan War and write a well-developed, detailed summary of the information you find there. Note: a summary should include ALL of the main points AND the main supporting examples of the material being summarized.

2. Read the material in "The Collapse of Mycenaean Palatial Civilization and the Coming of the Dorians and write a well-developed, detailed summary of the information you find there. Note: a summary should include ALL of the main points AND the main supporting examples of the material being summarized.

Browse through the links to Mycenaean images. Write a detailed review of what you find there. Be very specific about each artifact, what it looks like, where it comes from, and what it was used for. Then, explain how it might have been used in the Iliad or the Odyssey.

Go to a museum that has a collection of Bronze Age artifacts. Write a detailed, well-developed review of what you find there and how the various artifacts might have been used in specific scenes in the Iliad and/or the Odyssey. In the D.C. Metro Area, the Walters Museum in Baltimore is the best place to find Bronze Age artifacts.

Browse through the various sites on the Bronze Age Page and select one interesting site that has images and/or information about Mycenae and/or Troy. Write a detailed, well-developed review of that site, describing specific images/artifacts and how they might have been used by characters in the Iliad. Be sure to include the title and URL of the site.

Watch Michael Wood's wonderful series, In Search of the Trojan War, and write a detailed, fully-developed review. It has just been released on DVD. Worth double credit: up to 100 points if the review is very well done. You may only receive credit for reviewing either the video or the book, not both.

Read Michael Wood's book, In Search of the Trojan War (2nd edition) and write a review. Worth double credit: up to 100 points if the review is very well done (lots of specific information and some good ideas of your own). You may only receive credit for reviewing either the book or the video, not both.

Read Latacz, Troy and Homer, (2004), which is about the recent excavations by Manfred Korfmann, claiming that historical Troy was indeed much larger than previously realized, and an important trading center--thus much like the Troy described by Homer. Write a detailed review of the book. This is worth double credit (up to 100 points), if very well done.

Select a book from the Bibliography. Read it and write a well-developed review Depending on the book and the depth and development of the report, this may be worth either single or double credit. Write at the top if you want this review to be considered for double credit.

10. Go to Troy/Wilusa/Ilium and read through all the material on the site very carefully. Then write a summary of what you find there and finally use the information to either support or deny the reality of "Troy" as the site of Homer's Iliad. Note: a summary should include ALL of the main points AND the main supporting examples of the material being summarized.

Last Updated: 8/1//2017